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Voter registration cutoff coming up

Franklin County Board of Elections plans registration events on Oct. 2

The Franklin County Board of Elections is hosting a voter registration day in Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake ahead of the Oct. 8 deadline to register before Election Day on Nov. 2.

Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks, who lives in Tupper Lake, plans to be in both towns next month to sign people up.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, she’ll be at the Harrietstown Town Hall from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and at the Tupper Lake Town Hall from 1 to 4 p.m.

Sparks said if someone is not voting age yet, but will turn 18 before Election Day, they should register in advance at these events so they’ll be ready to go when it comes time.

In Essex County, voter registration can be done at the Board of Elections office at the county complex in Elizabethtown.

Sparks said registration turnout is usually pretty slow in years like this, but she hopes people will still sign up. Even though this is a year with no presidential, gubernatorial or congressional elections, there’s still a lot of reasons to cast a ballot in village, town and county elections, she said.

“It’s always a good thing to be involved in picking who leads your town,” Sparks said.

She said these elections are for positions on a smaller scale than the nation or state, but the elected leaders they produce are the people who levy taxes and decide where that tax money gets spent.

She also said there are five propositions on the ballot this year.

There’s one regarding the state’s redistricting process, which would give more redistricting power to a party with a majority in the Senate and Assembly, which is currently the Democratic Party.

Another would add the rights to clean air, water and environment to the state Constitution.

Two relate to voting law — one would eliminate the requirement that a citizen be registered to vote at least 10 days before an election, the other would expand no-excuse absentee ballot voting, which was used widely in elections during the coronavirus pandemic last year.

The last one would increase New York City’s Civil Court jurisdiction.

Sparks will also have absentee ballot applications available at these events, if voters plan to vote absentee and do not want to apply by mail or by getting an application from Malone.

These will be applications only and will not be processed until the next business day.

Sparks will be back in the south end of the county before the election to collect absentee ballots from voters who do not want to mail their filled-out ballots in.

On Saturday, Oct. 16, she’ll be at the Tupper Lake Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Friday, Oct. 22, she’ll be at the Harrietstown Town Hall from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

All absentee ballots must be secured in their ballot envelope and the envelope must be sealed. The ballot will be secured in a locked box.

(Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong days of the week for when Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks will be collecting absentee ballots in the southern end of the county. The correct days are Saturday, Oct. 16 at the Tupper Lake Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 22 at the Harrietstown Town Hall from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Enterprise regrets the error.)

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